The Department of Public Safety, which is struggling financially, is planning to use $16 million of the federal stimulus dollars that Gov. Rick Perry begrudgingly accepted to plug a hole in the border security budget. The decision follows a mandate by Perry, Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, and House Speaker Joe Straus that state agencies cut 5 percent out of their budgets to meet an anticipated shortfall.
Department of Public Safety
Posted in
Criminal Justice
TribBlog: Send a Sext, Go To Jail
Attorney General Greg Abbott has a message for young, hormonal Texans: Sending your BF or GF naughty pics over the phone could be criminal.
Posted in
State Government
TribBlog: Perry Commends DPS Troopers Who Nabbed Capitol Shooter
A man entered Sen. Dan Patrick’s office, then fired shots outside the Capitol. No injuries have been reported.
Posted in
Criminal Justice
TribBlog: Abbott launches trafficking task force
Twenty percent of the nation’s 17,000 human trafficking victims each year come through Texas, and Attorney General Greg Abbott said today the state should take the lead in collaboration among agencies to fight the scourge of modern-day slavery.
Posted in
Demographics
TribBlog: Not-so-happy New Year’s Eve for MALDEF
The Third Court of Appeals in Austin said the Texas Department of Public Safety does not have to halt its policy that prevents some legal U.S. residents from getting driver’s licenses.
Posted in
Transportation
HuTube: Red Light Cam Story Near You
NBC-5 in Dallas used our data application for a story on red-light cameras.
Posted in
Transportation
More Than One Million Caught
Next time you plan on speeding through an intersection after the signal changes to red, remember this: A camera could be watching.
Posted in
State Government
Data App: Red-Light Cameras
Explore red-light camera intersections across Texas, or drill down to individual intersections to see images, crash figures and citation totals.
Posted in
Higher Education
Caven’s Quest, Part Two
In 2008, the file at DPS headquarters in Austin still said Scotty Caven III caused the August 2004 car crash that killed him and two others. Officials there had declined to reopen and investigate the case. But his father, UT System regent Scott Caven Jr., wouldn’t take no for an answer.
Posted in
Higher Education
Caven’s Quest, Part One
After his son and two others died in a horrific car wreck in 2004, former UT Regent Scott Caven Jr. set out to prove that his namesake, Scotty, wasn’t to blame. He eventually persuaded the Texas Department of Public Safety to change its accident report — a rare feat: In the last five years, DPS has changed the final reports in fewer than 1 percent of fatal crash investigations.
